Recent Entries in Arts and Entertainment
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Show Preview: Brackett & Co., Real Estate
If the J. Tillman show outside isn't enough to lure you to The Mohawk on this post-Thanksgiving eve, here's two more reasons: the debut performance by Brackett & Co., and a chance to catch hot upstarts Real Estate.
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J. Tillman at the Mohawk - Giveaway
If you're into introspective folk music written by mountain men with thick bears, it may have been a rough year for you.
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Weekend Music Preview: Woven Bones Tour Kick-Off [Beerland / Friday]
After enjoying Thanksgiving leftovers galore on Friday, it’s quite normal to wallow in the turkey induced comatose or hit the hay early. Not this year. Instead, muster up all your energy and head down to Beerland where local trio Woven Bones will undoubtedly revive, replenish, and then hypnotize with thunderous jolts of reverb soaked garage-rock. The band departs on a West Coast tour in December so this may be your last chance to catch ‘em in town this year. We touched base with vocalist and guitarist Andrew Burr earlier this week and learnt that the three current band members actually relocated to Austin from three different states. Naturally, we delved deeper to enquire about the band’s origins, and sought Burr’s thoughts on the recent vinyl revival as well as living in the “Live Music Capital of the World.”
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Storm Warning: Neko Case to Hit Antone's Tonight
Case is fond of mythology. She weaves it throughout her work, whose imagery expands beyond the borders of any particular album to form connective tissue between them. Middle Cyclone expands and refracts the ideas introduced on 2006's Fox Confessor Brings the Flood. This sort of continuity from one release to the next creates the kind of body of work that makes lifelong fans of many listeners.
In many ways, Austin is a natural setting for Case's soulful, skewed-off-the-beaten-country-path vocal work. Her penetrating voice cuts a swath straight through the twangy guitars that any natural disaster would be proud of. Motley indie Austin four-piece Oh No Oh My kicks off the aural downpour at Antone's tonight.
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Preview: Legs Against Arms EP Release [Club de Ville / Saturday]
Cultivating your personal project within Austin’s fertile music scene can often be a trying task. This MySpace age offers every band a path to limitless exposure, for better or for worse, so it’s not uncommon for your baby to get buried under the avalanche of artists tirelessly peddling their wares. But you want more for your pride and joy. You diligently nurtured it all the way from the time it was just a seed in your head and now you’re ready for others to take note.
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SXSW Announces a Couple Hundred More Showcasing Bands for 2010 [Lots of Austin Bands in the Mix]
Highlights include Yellow Fever, Harlem, We Are Scientists, Solid Gold, Soulico, San Saba County, Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson, Riverboat Gamblers, Plants and Animals, Princeton, Pink Nasty, Pivot, Monarchs, The Middle East, Japandroids, Headdress, Colin Gilmore, Frightened Rabbit, Fanfarlo, Deer Tick, Dappled Cities, Contra Coup, Best Fwends, Ólöf Arnalds, Arms, A Shoreline Dream, Alpha Rev and more (follow the jump). [SXSW 2010]...
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EAST Interview: Kat Murph of Vertallee Letterpress
Among Austin printmakers, screenprinting reigns supreme - the sometimes messy process requires relatively little equipment and nicely compliments our rock and roll lifestyle. For every collective of anarchists kids squeegeeing patches in their kitchen, there is an Austin printmaker pursuing a different printing technique. Kat and Brad Murph are a pair of such printers, and in 2006 they founded Vertallee Letterpress, a design and print studio in East Austin. Letterpress is like screenprinting's older, more refined sister - the delicate embossing instantly gives paper a polished aesthetic. Vertallee provides custom design and printing for invitations, business cards, and all manner of ephemerata. Vertallee Letterpress are participating in East Austin Studio Tour - stop by their studio at 701 Tillery St. to see their work and try your hand at printing on their Heidelberg Windmill press. Vertallee's creative director, Kat Murph answered some questions for us about the letterpress process and the future of the printed word.
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Weekend Art Roundup: East Austin Studio Tour Edition
The ever fantastic East Austin Studio Tour continues this weekend with open studios and more art programs and happenings. Here's a rundown of some of our suggestions for weekend art enjoyment.
Don't miss your final opportunity to check out East Austin studios this weekend. If you're feeling overwhelmed with the 150+ participating locations, review our list of survival tips and studio picks and our interviews with EAST artists. Artists participating in EAST will have their studios open from 10am until 5pm on Saturday and Sunday. Head over to the official East Austin Studio Tour site to see the full list of artists and to download a copy of the EAST map. We'll see ya on the East Side!
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Snapshots: Friendly Fires & XX @ Mohawk
Photos courtesy Pooneh Ghana.
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Preview: Black Cock @ Red 7 [Friday]
We’ve been enjoying the live videos from Fun Fun Fun Fest nightly but as enticing as it sounds, repeated viewings of this priceless performance by The Jesus Lizard or this epic Les Savy Fav clip at home shouldn’t be a part of anyone’s Friday evening agenda. Especially since Red 7 is hosting a handful of top-notch local rock acts that will surely expunge any lingering post-Fun Fest lethargy. But be warned, the sounds resonating from the venue this night are not for the weak of heart. Eagle Claw bring the thunder early on with an ample supply of sizzling guitar licks, Woodgrain’s chiming experiments continue the sonic onslaught, and the always impressive Tia Carrera bludgeon through lengthy doses of psych-metal in the penultimate slot. Black Cock’s thumping electro-rock brings down the curtain on this exceptional noise-laden bill, adding some vocals to all the racket along the way. Chock-full of resonating keys and immaculately layered vocals, the band’s debut full-length Robot Child With A God spawns ominous soundscapes that might not usher in the end of days just yet but are disconcerting enough to imply impending doom and darkness. We chatted with Black Cock’s ringleader Chico Jones earlier this week to learn more about the band’s recording process, and their hopes and dreams.
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Austinist Show Preview: Electric Tickle Machine @ Beerland Friday
You might be thinking that Electric Tickle Machine - kind of a misnomer at first - is another in a seemingly long line of garage pop / psychedelic rock groups making danceable rock and roll and going the extra mile to make their live show kinetic and engaging but failing to transition that energy into their recordings. But, such is not the case. It’s clear on Blew it Again, released earlier this year, the group didn’t simply enter the studio and bang out tracks, then hop in the van and head to the next show. They gave a damn, and it translates in recordings which toe the line between the produced and lo-fi, allowing for a fair amount of grit and fuzz to enter and join the brightness and clarity among the chorus and keys. It makes for an album with a different look and feel from their live show while channeling some of that raw, live energy, which has been known to include the occasional naked audience member dancing and jiggling their parts uncovered up on stage.
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EAST Interview: Angela Hayes of Women Printmakers of Austin
For fifteen years, the members of the Women Printmakers of Austin have dedicated themselves to exploring artistic expression and expanding the audience of fine art printmaking. Deeply rooted in historical printing traditions, these artists are now able to blend classic techniques with modern technology to create contemporary works of art. The WPA recently acquired studio space in Pump Project's newly rennovated Satellite Studio and Flex Space. The new shared space grants 24 hour access to studio subscribers who can avail themselves of etching and intaglio supplies, a large press, and other tools of the trade. The Women Printmakers of Austin are participating in this weekend's East Austin Studio Tour and can be visited at 1109 Shady Lane, just up the road from the Pump Project complex. Artist and WPA Chair Angela Hayes answered some questions for us about the future of printmaking and what it's like to work with a team of talented women.
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Review: The Cherry Orchard at The Blue Theater
it’s hard to think of much besides this production after seeing it. So here’s a word: this production is good. That adjective may seem blasé, but it’s intended to be anything but. Breaking String’s Cherry Orchard is good in that ephemeral, indefinable way—good, and to find other words would render them dull in comparison to the experience.
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Le Diamant Brut: Freelance Whales & Chief Rival
What’s the Deal: Quirky, capricious and dreamy are all adjectives you could use to describe the music of New York’s Freelance Whales. The five piece experimental folk pop outfit has experience playing in locations ranging from decent sized venues as on their current US tour with Fanfarlo to busking on sidewalks and train stations in New York City. They’ve been very busy since their start in late 2008, and this past August saw the release of their debut album, Weathervanes. It’s comprised of vast, melodic arrangements using everything from harmonium and banjo to glockenspiel and waterphone built up around bright, glittering to eerie choruses.
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Radio IST List: Dan Green of 4ms Pedals
Dan Green of 4ms Pedals builds effects boxes and synthesizers, in both finished and DIY kit incarnations, out of a second-story studio on Cesar Chavez in East Austin. I spoke with him there a couple days before the East Austin Studio Tour began. He'll be there this weekend as well.
